En bloc resection of primary malignant bone tumors of the cervical spine.

Abstract

Due to the poor response of primary malignant bone tumors to adjuvant therapies, surgical resection performed in an en bloc fashion with free margins remains the best option for long-term recurrence-free survival of patients harboring such lesions. In this article the authors provide a stepwise review of the technical details involved in the performance of en bloc resections of tumoral lesions in the cervical spine. Due to the anatomical peculiarities of the cervical spine related to the presence of functional nerve roots as well as the vertebral arteries, en bloc resections in this region remains a challenging surgical procedure.